Joshua Packer will not be restrained during his assault trial

The judge denied a request by the prosecution Thursday to have Joshua Graham Packer restrained to his chair during his trial this week for assaulting a hospital security guard in 2009.

Packer, who turned 22 on Wednesday, is also a defendant in a more serious and unrelated crime. He is charged with the 2009 murder of Brock and Davina Husted and her unborn child at their Faria Beach home.

The Ventura County District Attorney's Office, which is seeking the death penalty in the triple murder case, said Packer should be restrained during the assault trial because of courtroom safety and security concerns. Jury selection in the assault trial began Thursday afternoon.

Packer was convicted in June of misdemeanor battery for the 2009 altercation with a security guard at Ventura County Medical Hospital, but jurors deadlocked on the felony assault charge involving another security guard during the same incident. Packer is being retried on that case now, on charges of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury.

During the pretrial hearing Thursday, prosecutor Anthony Sabo told Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kent Kellegrew that Packer had been involved in 25 different incidents in jail involving violent behavior or attempted manipulation or deception.

Sabo said Packer who has "cartoon-like strength" has run around inside the jail hitting his head, beating the walls with his fists and kicking the doors with his feet. Sabo said officers have used a Taser on Packer on two occasions, and during one occasion he was tased twice before he complied.

Sabo said the restraints wouldn't be invisible to jurors during the trial.

Packer's lawyer, Benjamin Maserang, noted Packer has been in two trials in April and June of this year without any problems, including one trial where there were two power outages. He said if the judge ordered restraints, he would ask for an evidentiary hearing.

On Wednesday, a very pale Packer told Judge Kellegrew he didn't want to be in court to listen to the pretrial legal motions filed by both sides, including Sabo's motion to have him restrained in a chair. Packer, however, said he did want to be present during jury selection on the assault charge. The hearing was continued to Thursday.

Maserang told Kellegrew that Judge Patricia Murphy, who presided in Packer's trial in June, rejected a request to have Packer restrained in that case. Maserang said Murphy read all the jail reports on Packer before denying the prosecution's request to restrain him.

Maserang maintains the district attorney wants to use previous convictions to build his murder case against Packer so prosecutors can strengthen their argument for the death penalty.

During Thursday's pretrial hearing, Kellegrew agreed to allow Maserang to call to the stand Matt Harvill, the district attorney's lead investigator in this case and supervisor of the Major Crimes Unit investigators. Maserang said he wants to ask Harvill about Senior Deputy District Attorney Michael Frawley's comment that he will be able to use Packer's previous convictions to assist him in the punishment phase of the murder case, assuming there are guilty verdicts.

Kellegrew said he will allow "some degree of exploration" in questioning Harvill.

He added he will tell jurors that Packer has other matters pending in court, which are "some of the most serious that we handle in this building."

Sabo told the judge he had no intention of calling Harvill to testify, arguing there is no reason for Maserang to put him on the stand to comment about Packer's murder case.

Sabo said Harvill has no ulterior motive or reason to please anyone in the District Attorney's Office or "alter his opinions and statements" made in the assault case.

In April, Packer was found guilty of two misdemeanors and a felony for dissuading a witness related to a vehicle crash in December 2009, seven months after the Husted murders.

Packer crashed into a parked car and prevented the victim from calling the police, according to court testimony.